You Want to See Racism in Action? Look at Where We Dump Our Toxic Waste.

There is in Alabama a poisoned place called Uniontown. Its residents are primarily African-American. In no particular order, they have seen dumped on or near their places of abode coal ash, cheese waste, wastewater from a nearby catfish processing plant. All of that overtaxes the place’s antiquated sewage system until it starts giving up its proper contents all over the ground and into the rivers and groundwater. The people who live there know why this is the case, as this study from the Pew Charitable Trusts discovered.

It’s a similar story across Alabama and much of the country. Many minority communities say their towns have been targeted by polluting industries because residents have few resources to put up a fight, and state and federal agencies have largely sided with industry when locals have challenged polluters.